Flood: NEMA scrutinizes 70,000 farmers for assistance in Jigawa

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has started the verification of 70,000 farmers whose farmlands were destroyed by flood disaster in Jigawa state with a view to provide them assistance.

Over 120,000 farmers were affected by flood last year across 19 local government areas of the state.

The Executive Secretary of Jigawa State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Yusuf Sani Babaura, disclosed this while speaking with Daily Trust on Sunday, saying of the 120,000 victims, SEMA had since last year gave relief assistance to 50,000.

According to him, NEMA, Ministry of Agriculture and his agency, were at present on verification of the remaining 70,000 victims that were yet to receive any assistance from the government adding that part of the verification exercise was taking the coordinates of the affected farmlands with a view to determine their sizes in hectarage.

“When the disaster occurred in 2018, of the 120,000 affected farmers SEMA assisted 50,000 victims with residual seedlings and fertilizer in order to remain in farm.

“Base on the fact that not all of the victims were assisted, SEMA wrote for assistance to National Food Security Council and NEMA in order to assist the remaining 70,000 victims.

“For the purpose of determining the number of hectarage each victim lost to the disaster, experts in Global Positioning System (GPS) had to be engaged in the exercise with a view to determining the coordinates per hectare of the affected farmlands.

“As soon as the verification is completed, distribution of the relief materials will commence. SEMA has since started taking delivery of the consignments of the relief materials from NEMA. The relief materials are mostly seedlings, agro inputs and Knapsacks.”